Zodiac is one movie I've been wanting to see for a long time. I believe it was originally suppossed to be released way back in December but then got pushed to January and now finally it was released this past Friday March 2nd.

The movie is taken from the true events and details chronicled by Robert Graysmith's two books, Zodiac and Zodiac unmasked. Both are very interesting books. The Zodiac case is so fascinating I guess because he is like the Jack The Ripper of our age. He taunted the police with letters, committed gruesome murders and was never caught. Interesting material. Just haven't had the time to see it yet, anyone else have?

300, which it seems most people I talk to are really interested in. I'm not overly eager to see it but I did enjoy Frank Miller's Sin City so I will get around to seeing this. 300 Spartan soldier battle against invading army of 100,000 Persians. All early review speak highly of the visual effects and battle sequences.

Spider Man 3, while it won't be out till May I think, I'm also looking forward to this one. I really enjoyed the last two. I thought Spider Man 2 was the best Marvel movie adaptation. I'm really happy that Parker is going to have the symbiote costume in this one although I'm a little disappointed it doesn't have the big white Spider logo like in the comics, that's not really important though. I've always enjoyed the story arc of the symbiote changing Parker to a more menacing individual and his battle to separate from the alien costume and then it bonding with Eddie Brock to become Venom. But am I the only one who thinks Brock has been mis-casted with Topher Grace? Brock was supposed to be a big guy like Brock Lesnar big.

300 is the one I've been anticipating the most. I first read 300 several years back & found it to be Miller's best work outside of the Sin City series. Though I thought that it lacked certain elements since its graphic style was aiming for a very epic, almost cinematic approach. I think that the films soundtrack helps fill in this missing dimension. I've heard a few samples of the tracks, and it really does sharpen the atmosphere. When I heard about a year and a half ago that they were making the film I flipped. When I saw the first production blog about a year ago which had the first stills, storyboards, and stage shots I about shit my pants. I can't wait to see it this week and every early review I've heard is adding to the excitement.

Also on a side note, Xerses' army is estimated to have been between a modest 100,000 men (slaves, conscripts, soldiers, etc...) & a startling 1,000,000. Though most historians aim for somewhere between 100k & 300k, the latter of which is represented in the movie.

Spider-man 3 looks great based on the trailers, as the past ones did, though I've never been too fond of them. They retain a little too much campiness for my liking. I guess I simply prefer that certain genres try to bring a certain level of realism. That's why I love Batman Begins. 2 was better than the first, and it was a great superhero movie, but there have been so few superhero movies if you consider it a genre as a whole (only about several dozen). Ghost Rider for example was a pile of crap, which is no surprise since the guy that did Daredevil & Elektra made it. Funny how the studio assumed that his good work on the Grumpy Old Men franchise warranted him handling most all of their superhero flicks. In any event I'm sure 3 will be great as I've been awaiting the use of the symbiote storyline, but I no doubt expect that certain element of camp. I am glad however that this will be the last for Maguire, Dunst, & Raimi. I think they should allow a different group to pick up the franchise in a few years with a second trilogy. It'd be a good way to keep the it fresh.

WannaB wrote: Ghost Rider for example was a pile of crap, which is no surprise since the guy that did Daredevil & Elektra made it.

Ghost Rider sucking doesn't surprise me, man that looked really cheesy in the trailer, I didn't know it was directed by the same guy from Dardevil etc. but I guess it should be expected as those two were atrocious as well.

WannaB wrote: I am glad however that this will be the last for Maguire, Dunst, & Raimi. I think they should allow a different group to pick up the franchise in a few years with a second trilogy. It'd be a good way to keep the it fresh.

Agreed! It's time for a new director to handle the reign, but I'm curious who do you think should be the next SpiderMan? I don't have anyone in mind. Hopefully this time they can get a good Mary Jane as I thought Dunst was a very poor choice for the role. MJ was supposed to be a model/statuesque and Dunst was neither of those. I hated her as MJ.

WannaB wrote: Ghost Rider for example was a pile of crap, which is no surprise since the guy that did Daredevil & Elektra made it.

Ghost Rider sucking doesn't surprise me, man that looked really cheesy in the trailer, I didn't know it was directed by the same guy from Dardevil etc. but I guess it should be expected as those two were atrocious as well.

WannaB wrote: I am glad however that this will be the last for Maguire, Dunst, & Raimi. I think they should allow a different group to pick up the franchise in a few years with a second trilogy. It'd be a good way to keep the it fresh.

Agreed! It's time for a new director to handle the reign, but I'm curious who do you think should be the next SpiderMan? I don't have anyone in mind. Hopefully this time they can get a good Mary Jane as I thought Dunst was a very poor choice for the role. MJ was supposed to be a model/statuesque and Dunst was neither of those. I hated her as MJ.

Cool, would you say it was one of Fincher's best? I really liked Seven and used to like Fight Club but that one has gone down on my list, probably due to overexposure and hype.

As much as I loved Fight Club (more so than the book because it was more streamlined), I love Seven more, and more so than Zodiac despite it's level of quality. I think personally I just found Seven more compelling & unusual by comparison.

Yeah that one is my favorite super hero movie too.

My favorite... of all time. I'm stoked for The Dark Knight. Glad that Eckhart & Gyllenhaal are on board now.

Ghost Rider sucking doesn't surprise me, man that looked really cheesy in the trailer, I didn't know it was directed by the same guy from Dardevil etc. but I guess it should be expected as those two were atrocious as well.

I watched a bootleg version on Youtube one day out of pure boredom. I thought to myself that Fonda would've only agreed to have been in the film before he ever saw a script because the film was horrible. Writing, acting, and just common sense seemed to be out of place. They allegedly delayed it a year so they could make the fire effects look more realistic, but I wonder if they were trying to salvage a train wreck.

Agreed! It's time for a new director to handle the reign, but I'm curious who do you think should be the next SpiderMan? I don't have anyone in mind. Hopefully this time they can get a good Mary Jane as I thought Dunst was a very poor choice for the role. MJ was supposed to be a model/statuesque and Dunst was neither of those. I hated her as MJ.

I'd actually love to see James Cameron take over as director, primarily because of his past interest in the franchise. Back in the '90's he wrote a screenplay for a Spiderman film & everyone in Hollywood who read it said it was the most brilliant Spiderman/superhero script they had ever read. He was only turned down because it would've cost too much money to make the film back then. That & he's a perfectionist to the point of making his entire cast & crew want to blow their brains out, so you're guranteed a good flick.

I'm not sure who I'd like to see as Spiderman though. I'm not gonna say Gyllenhaal like most would simply because he looks similar to Maguire. But I'm sure he would do great in the role. It seems he keeps on getting shot down in the superhero franchise however. First for Batman, then allegedly he was up for superman, and most recently Harvey Dent. I think I'd pick an unknown or more low-key actor to fill the void.

Mary Jane is a tough one, most people would think of legit redheads like Alicia Witt who's okay I suppose, but just okay; or Laura Prepon whom isn't that great of an actress outside of her staple character of Donna. Scarlett Johansen would be interesting, but she's not all that tall for the role. The only statuesque women that come to mind would be too old for the role I think.

Gyllenhaal isn't going to be in The Dark Knight, the other guy in Brokeback Mountain, Heath Ledger is gonna be in The Dark Knight, anyways besides Spider-man 3 and 300, I'm personally looking for TMNT (because I'm a Ninja Turtles mark), Grind House (because I'm a fan of Tarrentino and Rodriguez movies), and maybe Transformers (although I am not a big fan of Michael Bay movies)

I'm referring to his sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, who was just cast to replace Katie Holmes as Rachel Dawes.

It's a funny situation that Jake Gyllenhaal's Brokeback Mountain co-star, Heath Ledger, was cast as the Joker, and that his sister was just cast as well. Originally the role of Batman was down to him & Christian Bale. Jake obviously didn't win the role. And recently he was up for the role of Harvey Dent/Two-Face until it was given to Aaron Eckhart.

WannaB wrote: I think personally I just found Seven more compelling & unusual by comparison.

I agree, there was something about the unique murders being based on the seven sins and done in such a fascinating matter that was very intriguing. I also liked how they didn't put Spacey's name on the begining of the credits so as not to give away the fact that he is John Doe, although I knew it was him as soon as Somerset and Mills had that conversation with him on the phone.

WannaB wrote:I'm stoked for The Dark Knight. Glad that Eckhart & Gyllenhaal are on board now.

Oh awesome, I'm so glad Eckhart landed the role of Dent, I wasn't sure if he was going to get it, last round of rumors suggested otherwise. That is very good news.

WannaB wrote:I'd actually love to see James Cameron take over as director, primarily because of his past interest in the franchise.

Interesting choice, I didn't know about his past association with SpiderMan, but it seems highly unlikely as he seems afraid to follow anything up after Titanic, or maybe he is going to do some Jesus related movie.

Yeah perhaps, I only remember him from League of Extraoridinary Gentlemen, but he had that young naive Parker trait if I recall correctly.

Not long after he was cast as a regular on ER. I haven't seen that much range in his acting ability. Mostly I've seen him somewhere between the likable pretty boy or tough guy & the naive Parker type guy. So I'm wondering how well he can express other emotions on camera.

I haven't seen those two movies and I can't recall ever seeing any of his work. The name rings a bell though, from that movie Holes.

Yeah, the kid from holes. He was also Chaz in Constantine, the kid from I, Robot, and is in the upcoming Transformers movie. He's also rumored to be attached to Indiana Jones IV as Indiana's son.

Actually hold that thought. Shia is now denying the all but confirmed rumors of Indy 4. I guess he's saying that he's done with those type of roles (i.e. comic relief, sidekick roles in big movies... such as I, Robot & Constantine). Looks like he's trying to break away from the child actor image of Lizzy MaGuire.

Also, on a strange note. The MPAA gave Transformers an R-rating until Speilberg called and asked for a second review of the film, and now it's PG-13 apparently. I fucking hate the MPAA. Go see the movie This Film Not Yet Rated. It shows how fucked up the whole rating system is. Bored house moms essentially rate films based on their own personal opinions & not by any system of standards or whatever. That explains how Trey & Matt got an NC-17 rating like 13 times for the South Park movie, and then made the film worse to see what would happen. Somehow they walked away with an R-rating after making it worse.

WannaB wrote:Also, on a strange note. The MPAA gave Transformers an R-rating until Speilberg called and asked for a second review of the film, and now it's PG-13 apparently. I fucking hate the MPAA. Go see the movie This Film Not Yet Rated. It shows how fucked up the whole rating system is. Bored house moms essentially rate films based on their own personal opinions & not by any system of standards or whatever. That explains how Trey & Matt got an NC-17 rating like 13 times for the South Park movie, and then made the film worse to see what would happen. Somehow they walked away with an R-rating after making it worse.

Wow sounds really interesting. I never noticed how inconsistent the ratings of movies are. I'll check it out as soon as I can.

Unfortunately I felt like I was missing out on something. Maybe it's because I read the novel, am so well informed on the actual history of the Battle of Thermopylae, and the fact that I've been anticipating the film for like a year and a half now. Not to say that it wasn't a great film, which it was, but I kept on expecting more in some strange way. I know however, that it's only me who's felt this way after talking to dozens of other people.

WannaB wrote:Unfortunately I felt like I was missing out on something. Maybe it's because I read the novel, am so well informed on the actual history of the Battle of Thermopylae, and the fact that I've been anticipating the film for like a year and a half now. Not to say that it wasn't a great film, which it was, but I kept on expecting more in some strange way. I know however, that it's only me who's felt this way after talking to dozens of other people.

Yeah I think it is a case of you expecting so much from it and knowing so much about the surrounding events that once the time came to view the final product you felt a bit underwhelmed. I know this has happened to me too, although I'm sorry I cannot cite the particular film off hand. But take my friend for instance, its a bit more of an extreme take on your feelings of 300. He had previously read V For Vendetta and was looking forward to seeing it, I had however never read it but knew of it. I enjoyed the movie, he actually hated and preferred the novel and felt that it was inferior and had too many changes.

There are a couple, well more than a couple actually, movies that I wanted to see but didn't get a chance to. One of them was The Last King Of Scotland with Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin. I've always liked Forest's work, especially in his supporting roles like in, Good morning Vietnam, The Crying Game, Smoke and Platoon. Hell he was fun to watch in Bloodsport! I even enjoyed him as the lead in the off kilt Samurai/mob movie Ghost Dog. The only gentleman mentioned on this board with lazy eye that I don't think anyone would mind. From the clips I've seen of Last King, his performance did look impressive, not too over the top yet visceral.

The other one was Children of Men. I had read about it long ago and imdb and it always intrigued me. The trailer did nothing for me and from what my friends told me it didn't do the movie justice. It seemed poorly advertised and the studio didn't seem to have much confidence in it either, releasing it in fewer screens. I had heard that someone made a custom trailer for it and put it on youtube that promoted the movie much better. Regardless it was met with critical praise and performed respectfully considering its limited release. My friends told me it was awesome and paced very well, a non stop action ride that never slowed down.
Anybody see these?